BY The glory of children is their father. (Proverbs 17:6) In this hour, what we need at the very top of the list is a revolution of leaders; men that will lead their homes spiritually, physically and emotionally. We need Fathers today! Raising up homes, strengthening marriages and training children is pivotal for the success of the Church of tomorrow. Children today are being raised without a Mother and a Father in a single-family unit and primarily raised by their mothers. God never intended this to be. The evil one has assaulted the very basis of the foundation in marriage and has turned brother against brother. He is an expert at causing fathers and children to turn away from one another. The bloodiest and most violent battlefields in history were not in Japan and in France in World War II; they are in our homes, our bedrooms, and our minds at work. We must commit to faithfulness in marriage and our home more than ever before. It saddens me to say that even if a child is raised by a Christian Father they are often not taught the ways of the Lord. Fathers look at their children more as photo ops, rather than children to nurture, train, discipline, equip and love and release (Psalm 127:3-4). We desperately need a turning of the home today. I. IDENTIY ESTABLISHED FROM THEIR FATHERS A. The word Father means founder, source, chief, or leader B. The Father of a nation, an invention, a company, or a movement is the one who helped bring it into existence. C. Our heavenly Father, God is the source from which all other things come into being. D. A Father establishes a child s identity. Statistically and scripturally children learn who they are from their Fathers. Blessings and curses come on us directly from our fathers. (Joshua 24:15) E. God created fatherhood with an eternal purpose: to reveal and represent Himself. F. When a child looks at his earthly father, he should be able to see qualities of God the Father. A loving provider A strong protector A truthful leader A respectable Authority An intimate friend
BY II. LOVE GOD G. This affects how a child thinks. How we live as Fathers will directly affect how a child s identity will be established and how they will view God the Father. Here is the best and only formula to be the best and most successful Father that you can be: Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind; and, Love your neighbor as yourself. (Luke 10:27) A. It takes God to love God. We often think that loving God comes naturally, but it is the result of knowing how He is moved by us, how He feels about us, and how He is passionate about us. Understanding God s deep emotion towards us, causes our heart to abound in love right back to Him. But praying and asking God to reveal what He did for us will cause our heart to Love. Asking Him to move our heart to abound in Love (Eph.3:18-19). B. The arena we demonstrate our love back to Him is through our heart responses. By giving Him our obedience, our time, emotions, energy and all of our affections. C. Most men do not pursue relationship with God simply because it is work (physical and spiritual laziness), it requires intimacy with God and your wife, and it requires repentance and shame holds men back. It is really an issue of unworthiness. These are all lies from the enemy that can and must be overturned immediately. D. Today God is calling men into intimacy with Him above all, not to hide behind our wives (Eve), but to pursue a life with God that will overflow into having loving leadership in your home. E. Loving God is the basis and the foundation to which everything else will flow from. We must pursue love above all! III. LOVE YOUR WIFE (MOTHER OF YOUR CHILDREN) Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her Husbands ought also to love their own wives as their own bodies. He who loves his own wife loves himself; for no one ever hated his own flesh, but nourishes and cherishes it, just as Christ also does the Church. (Ephesians 5:25, 28-29) A. God is calling husbands to love the woman you married in a sacrificial way! B. We are to love our wives as Christ loved the Church. C. Christ loved the Church without limits. He chose to lay down His life for her. D. This means to sacrifice every day for her. As husbands we are called to put to death our own selfish desires to meet our wife s deepest needs. E. Christ s love for the Church is based upon His choice, commitment, and unchanging character, not on us. God loves us not because we are lovable, but because He is so loving. There is nothing that we can do can generate more love from Him or take His love away from us- because it was never based upon us to begin with.
BY F. Maintain an unwavering commitment to our wives; to love and cherish your wife in secret and in public. G. The responsibility for building a family in the ways of the Lord begins with the husband s treatment of his wife. Everything hinges upon this. If the husband does not serve and cherish his wife, he will not have a spirit of prayer upon his life. This is why prayer rooms of the earth are predominantly made up of women. Without a spirit of prayer upon a man, the effectiveness of the family will be greatly reduced. Husbands, likewise, dwell with them with understanding, giving honor to the wife, as to the weaker vessel, and as being heirs together of the grace of life, that your prayers may not be hindered. (1 Pet. 3:7) H. Scripture calls us to understand and honor our wives as equal partners or heirs in the Kingdom. Any man who fails to do this will be hindered in his life. We must give her equal respect in the kingdom as co-heirs in the grace of God. Growing in prayer is linked to honoring and understanding women. The prayer movement is a movement to honor marriage. Husbands are to commit to understand and honor their wives, regardless of how they feel about them romantically. III. TURNING OF THE HEART Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the LORD. And he will turn the hearts of the fathers to the children, and the hearts of the children to their fathers, lest I come and strike the earth with a curse. (Mal. 4:5-6) A. Restored families are a key strategy in God s restoration of people and society. Malachi defines God s promised restoration specifically as restoring Fathers to children and children to their fathers. B. The restoration of the family is the key factor in the restoration of the Church and society. C. The Lord is restoring fatherhood as the foundation of maturity. At the heart of the Gospel is a heavenly father who wants a family, and a heavenly bridegroom who wants a bride. IV. TRAINING OUR CHILDREN And these words that I command you today shall be in your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, when you walk by the way, when you lie down, and when you rise up. (Deut. 6:6-7) A. In every generation, the Fathers ability to train their children determines the success or failure of the Church, and the condition of the Church determines the success or failure of society. B. The Lord wants to turn our hearts.
BY 1. As fathers we must ask the Lord to turn our hearts toward the Children. The Lord is inviting us into a season of prayer, reflection, repentance, and acts of love. We must ask the Lord to give us His heart for our children. There is a required turning. Most generations are willing to sell out their children s legacy for their short-term gratification (Hezekiah in Isa. 39:6-8, David and Bathsheba). 2. We must turn our hearts to our Children by understanding the importance of building a family altar. Abraham walked the land and build altars of worship that attracted the presence of God to the land. In fact, throughout Genesis the Children of Israel encountered God in the very locations where Abraham had built altars unto the Lord. 3. We want to build altars of worship in our homes, which attract the presence of God and lead to encounters for our Children. Isaac, Jacob and Joseph had encounters and dreams in places where Abraham had previously worshipped. 4. As a father do you have a prophetic history and are you forming a prophetic history with your family? Is your family tracing the beautiful line of God s redemptive hand? Are you building altars of worship where your children and grandchildren can encounter God? 5. We are to foster a heart attitude that cultivates a prophetic, watchful spirit. Fathers are to hear what the Spirit is saying to the Church. I ve seen more homes where the wife is prophetically sharp but the husband has a dull, lethargic spirit. This must change. We have no idea of the power of a Father with a watchful spirit (Jeremiah 35) C. We must accept the primary responsibility of training and equipping our children in the ways of the Lord. We are not to wait for a Church program to reform our wayward Children. D. Paul only gives two admonitions to Fathers in the New Testament. He repeats the first one twice, exhorting Fathers not to provoke their Children to wrath (Eph. 6:4, Col. 3:21). Fathers are tempted to enforce obedience through severity and display of anger (which is really intimidation, a spirit of rebellion). The second is to bring up your children in their training and admonition of the Lord. E. We must teach our children how to pray and worship through relationship. Continually look for ways to call your children towards living out the Christian walk as a normal part of life. This means more than regular scheduled religious events. Giving kids heroes in the faith, testimonies on how God moved in your life and inviting your kids to pray with the family about things. F. Embrace a missionary life. Missionary families do it together. Take your kids with you, not as a cute thing, but as an integral part of doing the Lord s will. G. Have your kids pray over you, study the word and teach you on subjects. We have to provoke them into the things of God. V. PROVIDING FOR FAMILY But if anyone does not provide for his own, and especially for those of his household, he has denied the faith and is worse than an unbeliever. (1 Tim. 5:8)
BY A. We must commit to financially provide for our families. The Bible states that a man who fails to provide for his family has denied the faith and is worse than an unbeliever. B. This is so fundamental for living a life of unselfish devotion, thinking of others more highly than you. To honor and desire the best for your flesh and blood. V. CLOSING IN PRAYER Join me in praying: Lord Jesus, I ask you today that you would turn my heart. Turn my heart towards my wife and my children. Give me the grace to love you and to love my family. I need your help. I also ask you to help me turn my home into a home of prayer and worship. That my home would be a place of encounter for me and my family. I invite you Holy Spirit into my home. Thank you for turning my heart today and giving me the grace to walk this out! I love you Father!